If you don’t know much about the JFK story, try ‘Before History Dies’

Jacob Carter, millennial author, wants his generation to know and care about the JFK assassination story. The result is “Before History Dies,” an introduction to the debate over the causes of JFK’s death via interviews with thoughtful people who hold diverse opinions on the subject.

I’m not unbiased because I am interviewed too, and because Carter is the social media manager for JFK Facts and a friend. Nonetheless, I have to say this is not just an excellent introduction to the JFK story. Its a model for people of any age for how to think about the JFK story: with humility, tranquility, and courage.

The key to understanding the JFK murder is 3 things: (1) resist formulating any conclusions, (2) patiently read as much as possible from all the different vantage points, (3) recognize that the “lone-nut” theory is a narrative; meaning that it is an approximation of what may have happened, but nothing more. Some narratives are true, most are false – conveniently pushed to serve some powerful interest.

Digging deeper, another key is to recognize that Hoover had served nearly 10 Presidents – Coolidge to Nixon. He saw many presidents come and go, while he remained.

Another key is to recognize how powerful Allen Dulles was – he was at the Paris Conference where the Treaty of Versailles was signed ending WWI – he ran Nazi spies in WWII, he helped negotiate the surrender of Nazi generals in WWII, he integrated Nazi Gehlen’s spy network into West Germany to battle the Soviets during the Cold War. To Dulles, the Bay of Pigs fiasco and JFK’s murder were of smaller import than some of his other tasks/accomplishments/battles/adventures.

In sum, both Hoover & Dulles believed that they each were more powerful and more important than the murder of a young President and investigation thereof. That helps frame the context of what happened (in my opinion).

Yours is a special context valuable in understanding how JFK was dispatched and how it was loosely concealed- The people who removed JFK were positive that he was a danger to the country that they had built and had shepherded through a dangerous world- These people saw themselves as ultimate patriots, calmly excising an impetuous and naïve man-child who was harming US interests on a wide array of social, monetary and political fronts. Powerful onlookers mostly agreed with this assessment and any dissenters knew that a disclosure that our government could kill our President would upset the “US as Beacon to the world” meme, perhaps terminally- So we have the wacky Lone nut who worked at the most secret US military facility in the world, defected to our supreme enemy at the most critically frosty time in the cold war after working at that base who is calmly repatriated with no fan fare, on the US dime, publically playing both sides of the most volatile issues of his time, who “supposedly” went to Mexico City (unfortunately all of the photographic and voice recording at potentially the most surveilled real esate on the planet were misplaced) to try to hook up with Castro and get his help killing JFK, despite the fact that Castro was alive only because of JFK, and magic bullets which enter a mans back, go 45 degrees upward to exit through an entry wound in his throat, float in mid air for more than a second, then tear into the back of another man in a lower position, go entirely through his body after smashing a rib, tumble and damage his wrist, leaving fragments there which are clearly seen in x rays but were never removed, finally leaving a fully formed, pristine projectile which jumps out of said wrist and then decamps on a stretcher. I understand why the men who ran and run our country need to advocate this silliness and find surrogates to run their water- I can understand why many well meaning citizens want to believe the silliness- Not sure how intelligent dissenters can entertain debate on esoteric insanity however and to what ultimate purpose- People are never going to know what they don’t want to know- Watch 5 minutes of a current GOP presidential debate if any confusion on this point remains- Bill Binnie

Jacob did not include my interview in his book, only a copy of the Veciana letter. I am deeply disappointed in his approach, presenting both truth and lies in an equal manner for the young reader (with no background of experience) to decipher.